Two postdoctoral research fellow opportunities exist at IRISA/INRIA in Rennes, France, funded by the European project FP6 Pegase. This project is devoted to the autonomous landing and take-off of airplanes and helicopters using vision-based localisation and visual servoing techniques.
Starting date: September 1, 2007 or October 1, 2007
Monthly salary: 2275 euros free of tax, social security benefits included
Duration: 18 months
Contact: Jean-Pierre Le Cadre, Vista group
This work aims at estimating the aircraft position over time from image sequences. It is scheduled to consider two parts:
For the first part, the envisaged method would rely on conditional filtering (linear and non-linear) on image sequences.
The coupling of conditional filtering with the tracking of points of interest would be the backbone of this part, especially
in the presence of outlier measurements (e.g. PDAF framework) or missing measurements.
The second part will use the output of the first one, jointly with the knowledge of the environment. This knowledge
includes aircraft dynamics and geographic environment. The specific aims of this part are:
The methods will be based either on batch processing (regression, MCMC methods) or recursive filtering (Kalman,
Particles Filtering), but always with a special emphasis on robustness and performance assessment.
For this position, the candidate should preferably have a PhD degree with experience in image sequence analysis, in statistical estimation and tracking. The candidate should have also good abilities for software development and report writing.
Duration: 24 months
Contact: Francois Chaumette, Lagadic group
The work will be devoted to the 3D localization of the aircraft and to its autonomous landing and take-off by visual servoing.
As for the first point, 3D tracking algorithms will have to be developed. They will be based on the registration between a geometric model of the airport (runway/helipad, buildings, roads, ...) and the image sequence provided by a visual sensor mounted on the aircraft.
As for the second point, advanced control methods will have to be developed to take into account the dynamics of the aircraft in a visual servoing control scheme. The control schemes will be based on the position of the runway or of the helipad in the image provided by the visual sensor.
The implementation of the work will be integrated, tested and validated on a realistic simulation platform developed by other Pegase partners (Dassault Aviations, Alenia, Eurocopter, etc.)
For this position, candidates must hold a PhD related to computer vision, visual servoing, and/or aerial robotics, The candidate should have also good abilities for software development and report writing.
Applications must include a brief vitae, a publication list and a reference list. Applications have to be sent by e-mail before July 15, 2007 to Jean-Pierre Le Cadre for the first position and to Francois Chaumette for the second one.